The Presidential Veto: 1969 - 1974
The Presidential Veto: 1969 to 1974, President Nixon
Background
One main principle of the U.S. Constitution is the separation of powers. Each branch of Government, Executive, Legislative, and Judicial, can serve as a check on the other, preventing excessive power in any one branch. The Presidential Veto is an example of separation of powers. The President must sign laws passed by Congress. If the President vetoes the bill (does not sign it into law), it takes a two-thirds (67%) vote in the House and Senate to override the President and pass the bill.
Democratic Congress / Republican President
Republican President Nixon faced large Democratic congressional majorities, as shown in the table below. If Democrats and Republicans have different positions on various issues, you would expect the Democratic Party to pass bills opposed by the Republican President leading to vetoes and veto overrides.
The number of Nixon’s vetoes (43) was not high, but the number overridden by Congress (7) was high, only exceeded by five other Presidents.
Government Spending
Nixon and Congress had a number of disputes about spending. Congress wanted to increase spending while President Nixon wanted to balance the budget or limit the deficit. Some of his vetoes were sustained, others overridden by Congress.
For example, in 1970, Nixon vetoed two spending bills related to support urban development and education. In language that feels like it dates from pre-historic times, Nixon said: “I am determined to hold the line against a dangerous budget deficit. I am determined to hold the line against the kind of big-spending that would drive up prices or demand higher taxes.” Nixon indicated that his budget proposal already significantly increased spending in both categories. “Thus, the question is not one of cutting the present level of school funds. It is not even one of whether to increase school funds. It simply is a question of how much they are to be increased.” Again, in language that seems quaint today: “We cannot have something for nothing. When we spend more than our tax system can produce, the average American either has to pay for it in higher prices or in higher taxes.” And he states a challenge for politicians: “At election time, it is tempting for people in politics to say “yes” to every spending bill.”
Shortly before the 1972 Presidential election, Nixon vetoed nine spending bills covering various programs, including education, airports, mining, flood control, water and sewer projects, elderly, and veteran’s affairs. Nixon stated: “Each of these measures by itself might seem justifiable, or even highly desirable. But the hard fact is that they cannot be considered by themselves; each has to be considered in the broader context of the total budget—in terms of how that total weighs on the taxpayers and how it affects the struggle to curb rising prices.” Nixon won the 1972 election in one of our nation’s largest landslides. What role these vetoes played in his victory is impossible to measure.
Impoundment
Here is a question for you constitutional scholars. All federal government spending must be legislated by Congress. What happens if Congress decides to spend a certain amount of money on a program the President opposes? Assume either President’s veto is overridden, or the President had to sign the bill because other bill provisions were important. Can the President refuse to spend the money? He leads the Executive Branch, which administers the laws. Several Presidents have done this in a process known as ‘impoundment.’ For example, in 1942, with the nation at war, Congress added several pork barrel projects to a needed spending bill. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) signed the bill but announced that the Executive Branch would not take any action to implement those projects. FDR continued to impound money throughout the war, declining to spend money on various New Deal social programs to focus the nation’s resources on the war effort.
Presidents Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy impounded funds when Congress passed bills for a larger military than they deemed necessary. These included Air Force and Navy projects that Congressmen supported because the factories making these weapons were in their district, Another form of pork-barrel spending.
Until Nixon, Presidential use of impoundment was rare. Nixon used it on a wide variety of programs that he opposed, including welfare, education, and housing programs. Frustrated at Nixon’s actions, Congress passed the ‘Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974.’ Among its provisions, the law mandates that the President needs Congressional approval to impound previously authorized spending. Surprisingly, Nixon signed the bill a few weeks before he resigned due to the Watergate scandal.
State governors have more power regarding spending than the President. Most states have a line-item veto enabling the governor to veto an objectionable portion of a bill without vetoing the entire bill. During President Clinton’s term, Congress passed a line-item veto law. Clinton used this veto several times until the Supreme Court ruled the line-item veto unconstitutional. And the passage of the impoundment control act in 1974 eliminated the ability to control spending by impounding funds.
Foreign Policy
In 1973, Congress added the ‘Cambodia Rider’ to a spending bill. This rider prohibited U.S. air operations in Cambodia. Nixon felt the ability to perform air operations was important to ensure that North Vietnam lived up to its treaty obligations to withdraw troops from Cambodia. Hence, he vetoed the bill. The House fell short of overriding this veto.
As discussed in the article about the power to declare war , Nixon also vetoed the War Powers Act.
The Veto and Nixon’s Resignation
On 8/8/1974, Nixon issued his last veto, a bill he described as excessive spending on agricultural spending and other projects. His reasons were similar to his past vetoes of spending bills: “This legislation exceeds my budgetary recommendations by such a large amount that it presents a clear and distinct threat to our fight against inflation and cannot be accepted….”
That night, President Nixon resigned the Presidency.
The battles over spending continued when Gerald Ford assumed the Presidency after Nixon’s resignation, as we will discuss in a future installment of this series.